NEITHER / EITHER / BOTH (2)

Hello again, everyone. Welcome back to the Daily Vitamin. 

Yesterday we reviewed the following generalisations about Neither / Either / Both.
1) NEITHER has a negative meaning (NOT).
2) EITHER gives us an option (OR).
3) BOTH has an inclusive meaning (AND).

With that in mind, here is the structure in each case:
a) NEITHER singular noun  singular verb form (NEITHER BOOK IS...)
b) EITHER singular noun  singular verb form (EITHER BOOK IS...)
c) BOTH plural noun   plural verb form (BOTH BOOKS ARE...)

Today we look at Neither / Either / Both in Short Answers. In these short-answer cases, it is not necessary to use a NOUN.

You can use the pronoun phrase (of them):
⇒ Neither / Neither one / Neither (one) of them (= not A and not B).
⇒ Either / Either one / Either (one) of them (= A or B, one of the two things).
⇒ Both / Both of them (= A and B, the two things).

Examples:
1) Would you like tea or coffee? Neither. Neither one. Neither (one) of them. (= I don't want tea and I don't want coffee.)
2) Do you want to go to the cinema or the theatre? Either. Either one. Either (one) of them. (= I don't mind going to the cinema or the theatre. It doesn't matter.)
3) Which book do you want to buy? Both. Both of them. (= I want to buy the two books.)

Tomorrow we will continue with neither / either / both.

As usual, in order to get some practice, I encourage you to write 2 or 3 sentences with these words, similar to the examples I've included. You can post your sentences to one of our social media sites (Facebook or Bluesky) and we will give you feedback about your writing ASAP.

Have either a great day or a wonderful day (or both).

All the best!